I smirked at him and took my time doing one big leisurely eye roll. In response, he turned me over abruptly and spanked my bottom hard. I yelped.
“Ow, ow, okay, I’m sorry. Please forgive me, oh great one.” I couldn’t help giggling as I said it. “That good enough for you?”
Ethan growled and licked a line from the curve of my neck up to my ear, where he sucked my earlobe into his mouth. His hand slipped over my belly and down into my pants, his fingers sliding over the fabric of my underwear. I moaned in response, and he massaged lightly before pulling away.
I turned my head to stare at him in frustration.
“Glad to see you’ve learned your lesson,” he smiled just as the timer went off downstairs, informing me my pizza was ready.
“Oh, come on. It’s not polite to leave a girl with blue balls,” I protested, and Ethan lifted an eyebrow.
“You have a curious way with words.”
“So, do you,” I replied, rising from the bed and walking past him to go remove my pizza from the oven.
Ethan rejoined me as I sat by his kitchen counter and pulled off a slice. He didn’t say anything, just sat and watched me eat as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
“Want some?” I asked, shoving the cheesy slice in his face just to annoy him.
Ethan scrunched up his nose in distaste. “No, thank you.”
I chuckled, eyeing him now. A lot had changed for him in a very short space of time, and I wanted to make sure he was okay with it. I mean, him drinking my blood had been the last resort of the desperate, and now here he was with an entire city of vampires looking to him to guide them.
“You do want this, don’t you? Leading the vampires and all? I’m a little worried that you think you don’t have a choice.”
“I don’t,” Ethan said placidly.
“Of course you do. I’m sure there are a whole bunch of vamps who genuinely want the job. Just give it to one of them.”
“I could do that, but then I’d have to leave. They couldn’t rule comfortably knowing a far stronger candidate is still residing in the city. And I don’t want to leave, Tegan.”
I studied him a moment. “Well, maybe it’s a good thing. They always say that reluctant rulers are the best kind. You aren’t in it for the benefits or the lavish lifestyle. It means you might actually focus on what’s important instead of your own selfish interests.”
“That’s a good theory. But it could also go the opposite way. The fact that I’m reluctant might mean I’ll intentionally fuck up the job.”
I smiled at him. “I don’t think you’d do that. You’re too much of a perfectionist. It would just irritate you to do a half-assed job.”
He grinned at me. “Is that a compliment?”
“A roundabout one. That’s the best you’re going to get from me.”
He kissed me tenderly on the cheek, and I finished eating my pizza. There was plenty left, but I decided it would do for breakfast in the morning. If I was going to be staying here with Ethan, I’d really have to see about stocking his fridge and pantry. Human food wasn’t very plentiful in vampire houses.
I squealed when his arm reached under my knees, and he lifted me into his arms.
“Come on, Sunshine,” he whispered in my ear. “Let’s see what we can do about those blue balls of yours.”
I laughed as he carried me to his bedroom.
Finn
I woke up in the early hours of the morning because the bed was shaking. Glancing to my left, I saw Alora convulsing beneath the covers, and a surge of panic gripped me.
Rising onto my elbow, I put my hand to her forehead. She was hot and clammy with sweat. Alora mentioned this might happen while she slept, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch her. The convulsions that wracked her body looked painful. I wondered what premonition she was seeing. Would she be able to see the future of the city and what was going to become of us?
Would Theodore keep us trapped in his bubble forever? Or would we all be dead before the week was through?
One thing I knew for certain was that I had to make contact with Tegan. I had to know the choices Cristescu was going to make for his vampires. Would he spur them to kill or encourage them to live peacefully?
After a couple of minutes, Alora stilled and her breathing returned to normal. I lay awake on top of the covers, my hands clasped above my head and my mind on high alert. Too many ‘what ifs’ filled my head, making it impossible to get back to sleep.
Once seven o’clock hit, I got up, took another shower, and got dressed. Alora woke up just as I was sitting at the foot of the bed lacing my boots.